Contact Details – Name, address, email, phone number and job title (optional and if only relevant e.g. you don’t want to put ‘Vice President’ in your CV, but it makes sense for a Software Tester, Nurse, Math Teacher, if you want to catch hiring manager’s attention).

Personal Statement – This is an overview of your career. It should briefly answer questions about who you are, what you can offer, and what are your objectives in relation to the job you are applying for.

Work History – This covers companies you’ve worked with, starting from the recent one. This should include the name of the company, period of your employment, job title, and a short description of your responsibilities and achievements.

Skills and Credentials – Put relevant education, trainings, and certifications. This part answers the things you know and your personal achievements, e.g. if you are a scholar or you graduated with honors.

The one important point I learned when selling yourself in your CV is this – don’t just list your skills, instead, make sure to summarize your duties and achievements.

To give you a more concrete example, here is a section of my old CV and new CV.

Old CV

Developed a real-time reporting tool for traders

Part of the technology team responsible for maintaining internal bank applications

Spring, Hibernate, ActiveMQ, Google Protobuff, Git

New CV (NZ Style)

I am a senior developer in *your company* and part of a team which maintains and develops internal bank applications. One of these is a real-time risk reporting system which enables traders to manage financial risks by providing them timely data so they can respond to the fast changing market conditions. We used technologies such as Spring, Hibernate, <blah, blah, blah>.

My responsibilities also include

leading a team of software developers

requirements elicitation from users

providing third level support

Hope the difference is clear.

More Tips:

Keep it brief and straightforward (about 2-3 pages).

No need to include personal details like age, marital status, religion etc.

Focus on relevant work experience and skills.

Avoid spelling and grammar errors.

Oh, and don’t forget to include a cover letter. I didn’t write one, but it gives you a better chance to secure that interview. Make it special and tailor it for the job you are applying for. Give specific reasons why the job is appealing to you, why you think you have what it takes to be successful for the job, and what you can offer your prospective employer to achieve their goals. Be honest and try not to just copy-and-paste from Google. Imagine how the reader would feel when this is the case.

As promised in my earlier post on finding a job in New Zealand, I would like to share with you how I wrote my CV to match what NZ employers are expect[See the full post at: How to Write an NZ-Style CV]